Well okay, au revoir, I guess?

Well okay, au revoir, I guess?

I think Neef has been playing a different game than Canadian opera fans. He was making the COC a new hub in the international opera scene, and we were loving the big gets onstage.

Jenna Simeonov - Aug 27, 2020
Untold: a collaborative tale of pride and grace

Untold: a collaborative tale of pride and grace

This was a piece that did not feel as though it existed musically as a complete score but more so in the gathering of people together, in the physicality of the performance space, and in the unknowable magic that occurs in the moment of performance itself.

Alessia Naccarato - Aug 24, 2020
Aria guides: Mab, la reine des mensonges

Aria guides: Mab, la reine des mensonges

This aria is a ballad to Queen Mab, a mysterious fairy creature that gets into one's dreams; it's a breathless bit of excitement that sets up Mercutio as Roméo's outgoing, affable friend, so when he meets his end later in the opera, the loss sinks in deeply.

Jenna Simeonov - Aug 18, 2020
Intimate Voix humaine provides a way forward

Intimate Voix humaine provides a way forward

How do you stage something that is so static in tableau and also has so few characters? And more to the point, how does a company stage it in a time when theaters are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Arturo Fernandez - Aug 18, 2020
Tiny worlds & admiring singers: a mid-pandemic wellness check

Tiny worlds & admiring singers: a mid-pandemic wellness check

I don't live in the vast world of opera, anymore, and it's fucking sad. I haven't had one of those heart-racing experiences at a live show since February. I haven't had that happy, vibrating commute home in the magical night-time after seeing something incredible; it's been a long time since I've felt the relief of taking off high heels at the end of the night, or placed those heels gently back on their shelf, for next time.

Jenna Simeonov - Aug 11, 2020
Renée Fleming Brings A New Luster To Dumbarton Oaks

Renée Fleming Brings A New Luster To Dumbarton Oaks

Renée Fleming knows her audience, or in this case, the lack of one. Creating a sense of intimate occasion in the elegant music salon at Dumbarton Oaks, a Georgetown estate with a musical pedigree of its own, Fleming made her contribution to the Metropolitan Opera's MET Stars Live streaming concert series feel like a musical get-together.

John Hohmann - Aug 3, 2020
The Emphatically Present “West Side Story”

The Emphatically Present “West Side Story”

Through the years the original Broadway cast recording, abridged as it is to fit the time limitations of a single “long-playing” vinyl disk, has remained the pinnacle of its major recordings. The soundtrack of the hugely successful film recruited legions of fans plus a few detractors, Bernstein among them, who found it overblown.

John Hohmann - Aug 3, 2020
The concessions we make for live opera: Tosca goes up at Northern Lights Music Festival

The concessions we make for live opera: Tosca goes up at Northern Lights Music Festival

With no performances scheduled in the United States scheduled for the next six months will there still be an audience? I think so, and I hope so. Cautious performances like those put on by Northern Lights are essential to keeping the spirit of opera alive in the United States. Let us hope for more innovation and live music making in the coming months.

Callie Cooper - Jul 31, 2020
A weekend pick reminiscent of the good old days: Grindr (and other concerns)

A weekend pick reminiscent of the good old days: Grindr (and other concerns)

The premiere viewing of Grindr (and other conce rns) will feature Act 1: An Annotated Sing Through, where you can catch "unforgettably naughty scenes and arias" from the opera's first act, along with some delightful commentary on topics like opera development and queer hook-up culture. It's a combination of live and pre-recorded material.

Jenna Simeonov - Jun 26, 2020
A fresh Sunday Matinee out of Florida Grand Opera

A fresh Sunday Matinee out of Florida Grand Opera

FGO's production from 2018 stars Ana María Martínez as Florencia, the Brazilian soprano journeying home via the Amazon river; amid the storms and cholera outbreaks, Florencia and her fellow passengers travel into a murkey combination of fantasy and reality.

Jenna Simeonov - Jun 25, 2020

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